Danez Smith's poem "bloodnectar" was originally published in The Southeast Review 34.2.
bloodnectar
brother our blood intersects in too many ways
in our blood a choir of boys shamed out of church
boys too proud for a condom too broke for the pills
I buried a boy & was buried for it
he was the dirt packed into my mouth
he was a worm discovering my spleen
he was a maggot blooming from my eye
when I look in the mirror I see his shape
I am boy shaped boy drunk boy ill dead boy
when we kissed he tasted like dusttestimony bloodnectar
what can prayer teach that blood can not
name a god faster than blood
a boy is blood is a blade is a god is a sorry slaughter a fleshgun
brother our blood holds so many brothers
our blood is the longest love story
princess whose princes always dissolve & fester
the prince kissed me & turned to smudge
soot in my teeth every time I sing
my body is becoming sugared rot
my lungs are made of honey sweet but useless lungs
they gave me no shovel so I turned to my hands, my good jaw
to swallow is a kind of mercy
my laws leave good reason for the dead
my dead in my teeth every time I sing
the gums too filled with the bad blood
brother our blood is spiked with ghostspit
our blood is drunk & dancing with a knife
everything we touch turns to dirty wind
every time I say your name more dirt falls in my throat
Danez Smith is the author of Don’t Call Us Dead, winner of the Forward Prize for Best Collection and a finalist for the National Book Award. Danez is the co-host of VS with Franny Choi, a podcast sponsored by the Poetry Foundation and Postloudness. Danez’s third collection, Homie, will be published by Graywolf in Spring 2020.